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A massacre explored: murder in the jungle

March 16--How seven members of a Colombian peace community were brutally murdered.

16 de marzo de 2010

The bodies of seven civilians were dumped in shallow graves and strewn by a riverbank in northern Colombia five years ago. Most had been disemboweled and sliced with a machete. Four were children.

The brutality of the massacre shocked even a war-weary country accustomed to atrocities. The victims were members of San Jose de Apartado, a self-declared “peace community.” Not wanting to be a military target, the community had tried to establish neutrality by refusing entry to all armed groups, including guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary forces and the Colombian military.

Now 15 army officers are charged with murder and a trial for 10 of them is set to resume today. At stake is blame for the gruesome massacre and accountability for the army in a country where military crimes are often met with impunity and many killings go unpunished. U.S. interest in the trials also runs high — the U.S. has given more than $6 billion in military aid to Colombia since 2000, including to units implicated in the massacre.
 
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